A tale of two carmakers: Tesla overcomes Nissan

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn was in pugnacious form on Wednesday during a 145-minute press conference in Beirut, at which he proclaimed his innocence while simultaneously bemoaning the underperformance of the Nissan share price.

By the numbers: Since Ghosn was arrested in November, Nissan's enterprise value has declined to $85 billion from $96 billion, a rate of roughly $36 million per trading day.

• Tesla's enterprise value, meanwhile, has risen to a new high of $99.2 billion. Elon Musk's electric-vehicle manufacturer has a market capitalization greater than Ford and GM combined, and has officially become the most valuable U.S. car manufacturer of all time.

The big picture: Tesla stock closed on Wednesday at $492 per share, boosted by dreams of massive growth in China. That's comfortably above the $420 at which Elon Musk notoriously mulled taking the company private.

Go deeper:

• Pro Rata Podcast: Ghosn unboxed
• Ghosn: I fled Japan to Lebanon to escape injustice